The Death of Ivan Ilych Read online

unpleasantness and to give them a semblance of harmlessness and

  propriety. He attained this by spending less and less time with

  his family, and when obliged to be at home he tried to safeguard

  his position by the presence of outsiders. The chief thing however

  was that he had his official duties. The whole interest of his

  life now centered in the official world and that interest absorbed

  him. The consciousness of his power, being able to ruin anybody he

  wished to ruin, the importance, even the external dignity of his

  entry into court, or meetings with his subordinates, his success

  with superiors and inferiors, and above all his masterly handling

  of cases, of which he was conscious -- all this gave him pleasure

  and filled his life, together with chats with his colleagues,

  dinners, and bridge. So that on the whole Ivan Ilych's life

  continued to flow as he considered it should do -- pleasantly and

  properly.

  so things continued for another seven years. His eldest

  daughter was already sixteen, another child had died, and only one

  son was left, a schoolboy and a subject of dissension. Ivan Ilych

  wanted to put him in the School of Law, but to spite him Praskovya

  Fedorovna entered him at the High School. The daughter had been

  educated at home and had turned out well: the boy did not learn

  badly either.

  III

  So Ivan Ilych lived for seventeen years after his marriage.

  He was already a Public Prosecutor of long standing, and had

  declined several proposed transfers while awaiting a more desirable

  post, when an unanticipated and unpleasant occurrence quite upset

  the peaceful course of his life. He was expecting to be offered

  the post of presiding judge in a University town, but Happe somehow

  came to the front and obtained the appointment instead. Ivan Ilych

  became irritable, reproached Happe, and quarrelled both him and

  with his immediate superiors -- who became colder to him and again

  passed him over when other appointments were made.

  This was in 1880, the hardest year of Ivan Ilych's life. It

  was then that it became evident on the one hand that his salary was

  insufficient for them to live on, and on the other that he had been

  forgotten, and not only this, but that what was for him the

  greatest and most cruel injustice appeared to others a quite

  ordinary occurrence. Even his father did not consider it his duty

  to help him. Ivan Ilych felt himself abandoned by everyone, and

  that they regarded his position with a salary of 3,500 rubles as

  quite normal and even fortunate. He alone knew that with the

  consciousness of the injustices done him, with his wife's incessant

  nagging, and with the debts he had contracted by living beyond his

  means, his position was far from normal.

  In order to save money that summer he obtained leave of

  absence and went with his wife to live in the country at her

  brother's place.

  In the country, without his work, he experienced *ennui* for

  the first time in his life, and not only *ennui* but intolerable

  depression, and he decided that it was impossible to go on living

  like that, and that it was necessary to take energetic measures.

  Having passed a sleepless night pacing up and down the

  veranda, he decided to go to Petersburg and bestir himself, in

  order to punish those who had failed to appreciate him and to get

  transferred to another ministry.

  Next day, despite many protests from his wife and her brother,

  he started for Petersburg with the sole object of obtaining a post

  with a salary of five thousand rubles a year. He was no longer

  bent on any particular department, or tendency, or kind of

  activity. All he now wanted was an appointment to another post

  with a salary of five thousand rubles, either in the

  administration, in the banks, with the railways in one of the

  Empress Marya's Institutions, or even in the customs -- but it had

  to carry with it a salary of five thousand rubles and be in a

  ministry other than that in which they had failed to appreciate

  him.

  And this quest of Ivan Ilych's was crowned with remarkable and

  unexpected success. At Kursk an acquaintance of his, F. I. Ilyin,

  got into the first-class carriage, sat down beside Ivan Ilych, and

  told him of a telegram just received by the governor of Kursk

  announcing that a change was about to take place in the ministry:

  Peter Ivanovich was to be superseded by Ivan Semonovich.

  The proposed change, apart from its significance for Russia,

  had a special significance for Ivan Ilych, because by bringing

  forward a new man, Peter Petrovich, and consequently his friend

  Zachar Ivanovich, it was highly favourable for Ivan Ilych, since

  Sachar Ivanovich was a friend and colleague of his.

  In Moscow this news was confirmed, and on reaching Petersburg

  Ivan Ilych found Zachar Ivanovich and received a definite promise

  of an appointment in his former Department of Justice.

  A week later he telegraphed to his wife: "Zachar in Miller's

  place. I shall receive appointment on presentation of report."

  Thanks to this change of personnel, Ivan Ilych had

  unexpectedly obtained an appointment in his former ministry which

  placed him two states above his former colleagues besides giving

  him five thousand rubles salary and three thousand five hundred

  rubles for expenses connected with his removal. All his ill humour

  towards his former enemies and the whole department vanished, and

  Ivan Ilych was completely happy.

  He returned to the country more cheerful and contented than he

  had been for a long time. Praskovya Fedorovna also cheered up and

  a truce was arranged between them. Ivan Ilych told of how he had

  been feted by everybody in Petersburg, how all those who had been

  his enemies were put to shame and now fawned on him, how envious

  they were of his appointment, and how much everybody in Petersburg

  had liked him.

  Praskovya Fedorovna listened to all this and appeared to

  believe it. She did not contradict anything, but only made plans

  for their life in the town to which they were going. Ivan Ilych

  saw with delight that these plans were his plans, that he and his

  wife agreed, and that, after a stumble, his life was regaining its

  due and natural character of pleasant lightheartedness and decorum.

  Ivan Ilych had come back for a short time only, for he had to

  take up his new duties on the 10th of September. Moreover, he

  needed time to settle into the new place, to move all his

  belongings from the province, and to buy and order many additional

  things: in a word, to make such arrangements as he had resolved

  on, which were almost exactly what Praskovya Fedorovna too had

  decided on.

  Now that everything had happened so fortunately, and that he

  and his wife were at one in their aims and moreover saw so little

  of one another, they got on together better than they had done

&nbs
p; since the first years of marriage. Ivan Ilych had thought of

  taking his family away with him at once, but the insistence of his

  wife's brother and her sister-in-law, who had suddenly become

  particularly amiable and friendly to him and his family, induced

  him to depart alone.

  So he departed, and the cheerful state of mind induced by his

  success and by the harmony between his wife and himself, the one

  intensifying the other, did not leave him. He found a delightful

  house, just the thing both he and his wife had dreamt of.

  Spacious, lofty reception rooms in the old style, a convenient and

  dignified study, rooms for his wife and daughter, a study for his

  son -- it might have been specially built for them. Ivan Ilych

  himself superintended the arrangements, chose the wallpapers,

  supplemented the furniture (preferably with antiques which he

  considered particularly *comme il faut*), and supervised the

  upholstering. Everything progressed and progressed and approached

  the ideal he had set himself: even when things were only half

  completed they exceeded his expectations. He saw what a refined

  and elegant character, free from vulgarity, it would all have when

  it was ready. On falling asleep he pictured to himself how the

  reception room would look. Looking at the yet unfinished drawing

  room he could see the fireplace, the screen, the what-not, the

  little chairs dotted here and there, the dishes and plates on the

  walls, and the bronzes, as they would be when everything was in

  place. He was pleased by the thought of how his wife and daughter,

  who shared his taste n this matter, would be impressed by it. They

  were certainly not expecting as much. He had been particularly

  successful in finding, and buying cheaply, antiques which gave a

  particularly aristocratic character to the whole place. But in his

  letters he intentionally understated everything in order to be able

  to surprise them. All this so absorbed him that his new duties --

  though he liked his official work -- interested him less than he

  had expected. Sometimes he even had moments of absent-mindedness

  during the court sessions and would consider whether he should have

  straight or curved cornices for his curtains. He was so interested

  in it all that he often did things himself, rearranging the

  furniture, or rehanging the curtains. Once when mounting a step-

  ladder to show the upholsterer, who did not understand, how he

  wanted the hangings draped, he mad a false step and slipped, but

  being a strong and agile man he clung on and only knocked his side

  against the knob of the window frame. The bruised place was

  painful but the pain soon passed, and he felt particularly bright

  and well just then. He wrote: "I feel fifteen years younger."

  He thought he would have everything ready by September, but it

  dragged on till mid-October. But the result was charming not only

  in his eyes but to everyone who saw it.

  In reality it was just what is usually seen in the houses of

  people of moderate means who want to appear rich, and therefore

  succeed only in resembling others like themselves: there are

  damasks, dark wood, plants, rugs, and dull and polished bronzes --

  all the things people of a certain class have in order to resemble

  other people of that class. His house was so like the others that

  it would never have been noticed, but to him it all seemed to be

  quite exceptional. He was very happy when he met his family at the

  station and brought them to the newly furnished house all lit up,

  where a footman in a white tie opened the door into the hall

  decorated with plants, and when they went on into the drawing-room

  and the study uttering exclamations of delight. He conducted them

  everywhere, drank in their praises eagerly, and beamed with

  pleasure. At tea that evening, when Praskovya Fedorovna among

  others things asked him about his fall, he laughed, and showed them

  how he had gone flying and had frightened the upholsterer.

  "It's a good thing I'm a bit of an athlete. Another man might

  have been killed, but I merely knocked myself, just here; it hurts

  when it's touched, but it's passing off already -- it's only a

  bruise."

  So they began living in their new home -- in which, as always

  happens, when they got thoroughly settled in they found they were

  just one room short -- and with the increased income, which as

  always was just a little (some five hundred rubles) too little, but

  it was all very nice.

  Things went particularly well at first, before everything was

  finally arranged and while something had still to be done: this

  thing bought, that thing ordered, another thing moved, and

  something else adjusted. Though there were some disputes between

  husband and wife, they were both so well satisfied and had so much

  to do that it all passed off without any serious quarrels. When

  nothing was left to arrange it became rather dull and something

  seemed to be lacking, but they were then making acquaintances,

  forming habits, and life was growing fuller.

  Ivan Ilych spent his mornings at the law court and came home

  to diner, and at first he was generally in a good humour, though he

  occasionally became irritable just on account of his house. (Every

  spot on the tablecloth or the upholstery, and every broken window-

  blind string, irritated him. He had devoted so much trouble to

  arranging it all that every disturbance of it distressed him.) But

  on the whole his life ran its course as he believed life should do:

  easily, pleasantly, and decorously.

  He got up at nine, drank his coffee, read the paper, and then

  put on his undress uniform and went to the law courts. there the

  harness in which he worked had already been stretched to fit him

  and he donned it without a hitch: petitioners, inquiries at the

  chancery, the chancery itself, and the sittings public and

  administrative. In all this the thing was to exclude everything

  fresh and vital, which always disturbs the regular course of

  official business, and to admit only official relations with

  people, and then only on official grounds. A man would come, for

  instance, wanting some information. Ivan Ilych, as one in whose

  sphere the matter did not lie, would have nothing to do with him:

  but if the man had some business with him in his official capacity,

  something that could be expressed on officially stamped paper, he

  would do everything, positively everything he could within the

  limits of such relations, and in doing so would maintain the

  semblance of friendly human relations, that is, would observe the

  courtesies of life. As soon as the official relations ended, so

  did everything else. Ivan Ilych possessed this capacity to

  separate his real life from the official side of affairs and not

  mix the two, in the highest degree, and by long practice and

  natural aptitude had brought it to such a pitch that sometimes, in

  the manner of a virtuoso, he would even allow himself to let t
he

  human and official relations mingle. He let himself do this just

  because he felt that he could at any time he chose resume the

  strictly official attitude again and drop the human relation. and

  he did it all easily, pleasantly, correctly, and even artistically.

  In the intervals between the sessions he smoked, drank tea, chatted

  a little about politics, a little about general topics, a little

  about cards, but most of all about official appointments. Tired,

  but with the feelings of a virtuoso -- one of the first violins who

  has played his part in an orchestra with precision -- he would

  return home to find that his wife and daughter had been out paying

  calls, or had a visitor, and that his son had been to school, had

  done his homework with his tutor, and was surely learning what is

  taught at High Schools. Everything was as it should be. After

  dinner, if they had no visitors, Ivan Ilych sometimes read a book

  that was being much discussed at the time, and in the evening

  settled down to work, that is, read official papers, compared the

  depositions of witnesses, and noted paragraphs of the Code applying

  to them. This was neither dull nor amusing. It was dull when he

  might have been playing bridge, but if no bridge was available it

  was at any rate better than doing nothing or sitting with his wife.

  Ivan Ilych's chief pleasure was giving little dinners to which he

  invited men and women of good social position, and just as his

  drawing-room resembled all other drawing-rooms so did his enjoyable

  little parties resemble all other such parties.

  Once they even gave a dance. Ivan Ilych enjoyed it and

  everything went off well, except that it led to a violent quarrel

  with his wife about the cakes and sweets. Praskovya Fedorovna had

  made her own plans, but Ivan Ilych insisted on getting everything

  from an expensive confectioner and ordered too many cakes, and the

  quarrel occurred because some of those cakes were left over and the

  confectioner's bill came to forty-five rubles. It was a great and

  disagreeable quarrel. Praskovya Fedorovna called him "a fool and

  an imbecile," and he clutched at his head and made angry allusions

  to divorce.

  But the dance itself had been enjoyable. The best people were

  there, and Ivan Ilych had danced with Princess Trufonova, a sister

  of the distinguished founder of the Society "Bear My Burden".

  The pleasures connected with his work were pleasures of

  ambition; his social pleasures were those of vanity; but Ivan

  Ilych's greatest pleasure was playing bridge. He acknowledged that

  whatever disagreeable incident happened in his life, the pleasure

  that beamed like a ray of light above everything else was to sit

  down to bridge with good players, not noisy partners, and of course

  to four-handed bridge (with five players it was annoying to have to

  stand out, though one pretended not to mind), to play a clever and

  serious game (when the cards allowed it) and then to have supper

  and drink a glass of wine. after a game of bridge, especially if

  he had won a little (to win a large sum was unpleasant), Ivan Ilych

  went to bed in a specially good humour.

  So they lived. they formed a circle of acquaintances among

  the best people and were visited by people of importance and by

  young folk. In their views as to their acquaintances, husband,

  wife and daughter were entirely agreed, and tacitly and unanimously

  kept at arm's length and shook off the various shabby friends and

  relations who, with much show of affection, gushed into the

  drawing-room with its Japanese plates on the walls. Soon these

  shabby friends ceased to obtrude themselves and only the best

  people remained in the Golovins' set.

  Young men made up to Lisa, and Petrishchev, an examining

  magistrate and Dmitri Ivanovich Petrishchev's son and sole heir,

  began to be so attentive to her that Ivan Ilych had already spoken

  to Praskovya Fedorovna about it, and considered whether they should

  not arrange a party for them, or get up some private theatricals.

  So they lived, and all went well, without change, and life

  flowed pleasantly.

  IV